The invention relates to a wedge driving tool having mutually adjustable elements, particularly for the cutting and/or non-cutting shaping of a sheet metal workpiece in a press. The tool has, as elements, a mould- and/or tool-bearing working slider, which is displaceably arranged between a driving device controlled on the press side and a driver, and which is continuously angularly adjustable relative to the driver by way of a swivellably arranged driver-side straight-line guide.
Such a wedge driving tool, also called wedge slider or angle punch, is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,812,046. In this case, a working slider equipped with a punch is arranged as an oblong guide piston in a bush-type straight-line guide designed as a driver. This straight-line guide is continuously adjustable corresponding to the respective requirements over a relatively small acute angle range. The reason for the small adjusting angle range is the driving device, which is controlled on the press side and has a slide acted upon by the press slide and the slide, itself, acting upon toggle levers for operating the working slider equipped with the punch. Of these toggle levers, one is supported against the closed end of the bush-type straight-line guide for the stretched displacement of the other toggle lever and thus of the working slider. The kinematics of the driving device require high expenditures with respect to wear and friction and stress the mechanism of the angular adjusting device.
Another angle punch tool having an angularly adjustable straight-line guide for a working slider equipped with a punch is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,421,864, in which case the angular adjustability is achieved by way of a driver arranged swivellably with respect to a base plate of the angle punch tool. For this purpose, the driver and the base plate are constructed with corresponding circular-arc sections, for the locking of the respective acute angle, the two being provided with engaging serrations. A slider bed controlled by the press slide is the driving device displacingly acting upon the working slider. The disadvantage of this angle punch tool is that it lacks continuous angular adjustment as a result of the serrations.
Furthermore, a modern wedge driving tool is, for example, the object of U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,115. In the case of such wedge driving tools with the elements of a driver, a working slider and a slider bed, a working angle range of from 0° to approximately 60° is customary between a horizontal base of the driver and the corresponding straight-line guides of the driver and the working slider situated on top. And, between a horizontal connection surface of the slider bed on the press slide side and the corresponding straight-line guides of the slider bed and the driven working slider, a driving angle range of from approximately 50° to 0° is customary. In the case of industrially manufactured wedge driving tools, acute angles are offered in the above-mentioned angle ranges of only from 5° to 5°, which has the disadvantageous effect that the design engineer has to adapt the construction to these rigidly defined angles. If an adaptation is not possible, a new wedge driving tool with correspondingly set angles is required.
The advantages are therefore, on the one hand, the constructive constraints and, on the other hand, the considerable expenditures.
It is an aspect of the invention to construct a wedge driving tool such that, within the range of a largest possible acute angle, any desired working direction may be assigned to the working slider as a result of a continuous angular adjustment.
This aspect is made possible by providing another element as a slider bed having a driving effect on the working slider. In this case, on two of the elements respectively—the driver and the slider bed, or the driver and the working slider—segmental disks are in each case arranged on both sides in a continuously movable manner with respect to the angle of rotation. The segmental disks of each element each arranged in pairs on an axis of rotation are non-rotatably mutually connected along the chord-type boundaries such that corresponding straight-line guides for a respective element are arranged in these connections.
By way of the invention, a continuous angular adjustment is advantageously made possible on a modern wedge driving tool while the construction is kept simple.
Another advantage of the invention is an enlarged working angle range of up to approximately 85°. This angle range is advantageously divided into two areas of different sizes. For this purpose, in a first embodiment of the invention, a slider bed as well as the driver are each equipped with a pair of segmental disks which may be continuously moved with respect to the angle of rotation, for the continuous angular adjustment of a working slider with a driver-side working angle range of from 0° to 55°, and a driving angle range which can be correspondingly adapted on the slider bed side. In this case, the working slider may be displaced in a manner controlled by the press by way of corresponding straight-line guides relative to the segmental disk pairs.
In a second embodiment of the invention with respect to the larger angle range, the working slider, as well as the driver, are each equipped with a pair of continuously rotationally movable segmental disks for the continuous angular adjustment of a working slider with a driver-side working angle range of from 50° to approximately 85°, and a driving angle range which may be correspondingly adapted on the slider bed side. In this case, by way of the pair of segmental disks arranged in the working slider, the working slider is arranged to be displaceable at a predefined working angle by way of a straight-line guide oriented transversely with respect to the lifting direction of a press slide at the slider bed and the straight-line guide in the driver-side pair of segmental disks.
In order to achieve sufficiently long straight-line guides as well as a stable setup of the angular adjustments according to the invention, the segmental disks, having a relatively large diameter and, in each case, along their outer circumference having a predetermined axial thickness, are arranged in a movable manner with respect to the angle of rotation in a guide constructed in a circular-arc-shape in the respective element, that is the driver, slider bed, and/or working slider.
The wedge driving tool according to the invention offers several possibilities with respect to a fixing of the angle. In one case, the segmental disks of at least one element are detachably fixed on the element while the working angle is defined for a predetermined working direction. This makes it possible for a customer of an industrially manufactured wedge driving tool according to the invention to use the latter also for other angular adjustments, with, in each case, a separately adapted releasable fixation. If, in contrast, in the case of a wedge driving tool, the once defined working angle is to remain unchanged, the implemented angular adjustment may be secured by way of a non-detachable fixing. The series production of the wedge driving tool according to the invention is advantageously simplified by using segmental disks which eliminates different angle adjusting devices.
Finally, by way of the wedge driving tool according to the invention, a universal angle fixation is achieved in that the segmental disks of the elements are to be releasably fixed in any continuous angular adjustment by a force-locking/frictionally engaged blocking device. By way of example only, clamping devices, a self-locking gear, a locking screw interacting with a curved oblong hole on the segmental disk, or a spiral toothing arranged on a segmental disk in cooperation with a counterpart arranged on the respective element so that it may be displaced in a curved manner and clamped, are possible as blocking devices.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.